I was trying to think of how old the 2300s design was? I know they had them in early German made Capri's and the first Pinto's had the down sized 1600 version. the courier pick we had in `83 has a 2000cc one that was a dog. my buddy Fred had a 2300 with twin weber carbs and some weird header for SCCA racing

According to Wiki, the 2.3 was introduced in 74. The 85 1/2 SVO mustangs turbo 2.3 put out 205 HP

I owned a 1984 buick century limited with the 2.5L in it and that motor was a great one. the car had over 200,000 on it when I sold it to buy the YJ (2.5) and ran great. the mrs and I owned a 98 cavalier 4 banger and it too was great but at 80k had a head gasket issue. it got totaled in a freeway accident with only 2 payments left on it. replaced it with an 00 cavalier with the same engine and trans but wasn't the same.

When I was stationed in ND we had these (late 80's) Chevy S10 work trucks with utility boxes on the back. They had some sort of 4 cylinder, and even on the coldest mornings (like 20 below) they would start up and run great. We never had a problem with any of them.

well if it was an `82 it could have had a 1.9 Izuzu, a 2.0 (same as cavalier),2.2 Izuzu deisel, 2.5 iron duke, or the 2.8 V6. I am betting if it was fleet vehicle it had the 2.0. we had boat loads of them in A2 as Domino pizza trucks.

u guys will think im crazy but i love my 2.5 in my 92 yj.......i have beat the living piss out of it and it wont die.....its been beat on so bad that its running on 3 cyc and burns through 2 qts of oil per tank of gas......in the condition its in i still trust it to take me back and forth to work (an hour drive)....im in the process of rebuilding another 2.5 cause i like it so much

What is your deffinition of power? hp or torque? I think it was pretty good for what it was made for.

well more 80-90 HP from a 2.5L is poor, and everyone i've known has always left a huge pile of oil everywhere. They only reason why people probably think its a good engine is because it came in some jeeps and did run for a while. and it has the same bell housing pattern as a 350. But all the other vehicles its been in have basically been shit, and not just shit but the bottom of the barrel shit. So i guess its a shit engine for a shitty car.

The Iron duke is a boat anchor, not an engine. Its 350 lb of scrap iron and not that terribly efficient.

well more 80-90 HP from a 2.5L is poor, and everyone i've known has always left a huge pile of oil everywhere. They only reason why people probably think its a good engine is because it came in some jeeps and did run for a while. and it has the same bell housing pattern as a 350. But all the other vehicles its been in have basically been shit, and not just shit but the bottom of the barrel shit. So i guess its a shit engine for a shitty car.

The Iron duke is a boat anchor, not an engine. Its 350 lb of scrap iron and not that terribly efficient.

well you just explained which engine you had. you had the OLDER turd heavy crank version. the newer better ones had the front wheel drive style bell with the flat top. the "Chevy" bell ended in `81 on the L4s and anything they had left got sold as scrap or factory seconds, that would explain how it got in your Jeep.

and the old engines were heavy, closer to 450lbs dressed out. the newer ones were 390-400 lbs

I'm sorry you got a crappy one. I made my day at the dealer if I could have 6-8 out on the floor at any one time. they kept me alive for years. between the Duke and the 2.8s I kept my family fed. the best was the cracked engine blocks that leaked coolant along the top of the lifter vally. ask some of the older Pontiac mech. they lived on that engine, especially in the Fieros.

I have to say it wasn't their fault intirely. the trick on them was to change the oil like clock work. at the time people weren't used to high reving high oil presure based engines. two of the worst things to do to a 2.8/3.1 was to dump STP in it. byby cam bearings. we had one guy dump a can of GM engine flush in one and drive it all weekend. it had 10 psi when he got to work on monday, byby cam bearings.